Anakbayan members storm Akbayan press conference

Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello. INQUIRER file photo

MANILA, Philippines—Five youth members of the Anakbayan organization staged a rally at the Akbayan press conference held in Manila Tuesday morning.

In the middle of the press conference where members of the Akbayan party-list were explaining why the group should not be disqualified from the 2013 polls, youth members of the Anakbayan organization shouted “disqualify Akbayan, fake party-list.”

The youth members of the Anakbayan, led by Andrew Zarate, Anakbayan NCR spokesperson and Dianne Solmayor, Secretary General of Anakbayan, questioned why Akbayan party-list representative Walden Bello, back in 2007, was protesting that pro-administration party-lists should be disqualified when they were now “tuta ng administrasyon ni Noynoy (lapdogs of the Aquino administration).”

The protesters carried photos of Bello back in 2007.

As tensions rose, members of the Akbayan in turn shouted “KSP,” “utak pulbura (loosely translated as hot-tempered),” and branded what they described as the extreme leftist groups as “drifting into irrelevance” who did not like the reformist stance of Akbayan.

Left-wing Anakbayan party-list had been pushing for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to disqualify Akbayan, saying Akbayan was not marginalized since it was favored by President Benigno Aquino III. It said that Akbayan’s members held key positions in the present administration. They had previously named the members as Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Ronald Llamas, Commission on Human Rights chairwoman Etta Rosales, National Anti-Poverty Commission chairman Joel Rocamora and GSIS board member Mario Agujo.

Bello, who almost lost his cool and engaged in a word-war with the protesters, said that they did not respect groups’ rights to freedom of assembly.

Tensions among militant groups worsen

“Well I did show some anger and I admit it, but then who will not be angry if a group or somebody deprives you of your right to freedom of speech,” Bello said.

Bello argued that Anakbayan and other groups’ move to file of a disqualification case against Akbayan on the basis that it did not represent marginalized sectors was just a pretext. He said that their leftist rivals are desperate because Akbayan “was really being successful.”

“Groups like Anakbayan and Kilusang Mayo Una (KMU) are really upset that while they are drifting into irrelevance, Akbayan is successfully representing the marginalized. This is where this is coming from, this is not with respect to the formal qualifications of Akbayan,” Bello said.

“It’s because their politics, their political approach, is obsolete and anachronistic, whereas we’re showing that the politics of reform is fulfilling the interests of the marginalized,” Bello said.

Both Bello and Akbayan Spokesperson Lawyer Barry Gutierrez expressed confidence that the group’s track record would hinder the Comelec from disqualifying them, saying that they would take necessary legal steps if eve they get disqualified.

“I don’t think we will be disqualified…We are not entertaining those steps…We do not anticipate disqualification,” he said.

Bello argued that though it was no secret that they were part of the administration coalition, that did not mean that they did not share differences with them. He gave as an example the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, to which he said his group sought for amendments to the law.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes, when pressed about the issue in a separate interview with reporters, said that the Comelec did not want to rush decisions for party-list groups where there were certain debates or where there were no unanimous votes, saying that they would have to wait for the decision.

He said that Bello had asked him about the status of Akbayan and he replied that “it was still under study.”

Brillantes had earlier said that Comelec would be announcing 20 more disqualified party-list groups within the week. 15 party-list groups, including Ako Bicol partylist, APEC, and 1-CARE had earlier been announced as disqualified.